Enterprise Risk Management and the Role (and Life) of the In-House Counsel

Over the past decade, the financial services industry has adopted the language of enterprise risk management, e.g., ERM. Although it can seem otherwise, the mass production of checklists, heatmaps, and risk appetite statements was not ERM’s original purpose. Rather, ERM’s intended upshot was to effect “culture change” within organizations, for it to be embedded with staff, and eventually leave the fold of the assurance functions and run itself. Industry boards and CEOs are still considering ERM’s value and some question whether its reach exceeds its grasp. Meanwhile, regulators have seized on ERM as a powerful vector for monitoring the financial services industry. Rating agencies have likewise made ERM an essential rating component. ERM sits now as a valued monitoring and oversight mechanism -- the question is whether ERM can find its end state and achieve its original purpose of establishing “risk culture.”

Pete Maloney

From January 2004 to this past April, Pete Maloney served as the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of QBE’s North America division. At QBE, he managed 65 legal and compliance professionals and acted as Chairman of QBE’s agency division. He practiced insurance and reinsurance law for 11 years in New York firms before his tenure at QBE. He may be reached on Linkedin and at petemaloney@live.com.